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A comment on Our self imposed scarcity of nice places. Parent comment

Re:Our self imposed scarcity of nice places by Ma8ee on Thursday November 04, 2021 @06:42AM (#29105437)
No, it's not walkability that makes apartments in central Stockholm expensive. There's just not much more space there for more houses. For decades car traffic was what was prioritised. Just look at old Slussen which was just a couple of big traffic circles, with narrow tunnels for pedestrians. Or Sergel's torg, arguably the most central square in Sweden, which is dominated by a big traffic circle and with shops and pedestrian areas underground.

Then it is true that too little housing is built, and with the current very low interest rates people can afford to pay a lot for their dwellings. But I don't think it is intentional to not build more.

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Re:Our self imposed scarcity of nice places by jseban on Thursday November 04, 2021 @07:36AM (#29105779)
Car traffic is still prioritised, the new slussen is still an 8 lane highway right through the middle of the city, and the biggest reason it's downsized is that the ring road is now finished. And the biggest reason why Stockholm is managing to be so "car free" is because the highways are in tunnels underground.
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Re:Our self imposed scarcity of nice places by Ma8ee on Thursday November 04, 2021 @08:29AM (#29106296)
I do think it is an improvement that they nowadays put cars in tunnels and people above ground.

But it would of course be much better if they had spent all that money they used for car tunnels on public transport and more bicycle lanes and highways.

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Re:Our self imposed scarcity of nice places by alexanderchr on Thursday November 04, 2021 @08:38AM (#29106367)
Stockholm is not car free by any standards. On the opposite it’s very car friendly.
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Re:Our self imposed scarcity of nice places by CapitainEvident on Thursday November 04, 2021 @10:43AM (#29107809)
Too car friendly for my taste and I don’t get why people drive so much.

Stockholm is small enough that it’s walkable with fast public transport connecting everything.

I don’t think it ever took me over 30 minutes to get anywhere, none of my friends drive in town but over half of them own a car so we are often traveling north for skiing, south for the summer, weekends in someone’s parent’s farm, but I have no recent memory of driving around town, there’s just no need, plus, no drinking, so it’s a nonstarter.

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